Thus, in a continuous march of five days along the sea coast, with pack-animals, we had come 144 miles--a distance equal to the total length of Palestine--and not one of our beasts was laid up, or refused its feed in the evening. Although I have, subsequently, ridden farther at a stretch than the distance we rode on any one day in this march, we never undertook another journey so trying to our animals.
Arriving at Jaffa on Friday, we rested until Monday, and then rode up to Jerusalem, where we remained until Friday, the 10th of October, and thence marched out, to re-commence the Survey from a camp at Beit 'Atâb, a village in the hills some twelve miles south-west of Jerusalem.
The new district is one of considerable interest from a Biblical point of view. It is called the 'Arkûb, or "ridge,â and consists of a long spur, about 2000 feet above the sea, with numerous smaller ridges branching off, and two important valleys to the north and south--the first the Valley of Sorek, the second that of Elah. Our camp was a place of considerable interest, if I am correct in identifying it with the Rock Etam, _in_ which Samson took refuge from the Philistines. West of us were Sorek, Zoreah, Eshtaol, and Bethshemesh; and east of us Bether, the scene of the great destruction of the partisans of Barcocheba, and Beth Zacharias, the theatre of the battle in which Eleazar, the Hasmonean, perished under the elephant.
Another site of yet greater interest was also perhaps recovered during this campaign, namely, the Emmaus of St Luke's Gospel, sixty stadia from Jerusalem. This village has been variously identified with Kolonia, or with Kuriet el 'Anab; with 'Amwâs (in the fourth century) and with el Kubeibeh (since the 15th); but its name has never been found as yet at any site sixty stadia from Jerusalem--a distance which Josephus mentions, as well as the Evangelist, as that of the village Emmaus. (Luke xxiv. 13; B. J. vii. 6, 6.)
South-west of Beit 'Atâb will be found marked on the Survey the ruin of Khamasa, at a distance of about sixty stadia from the Holy City. The site is close to the village of Wâd Fukîn (Pekiin of the Talmud), with rock-cut tombs and other indications of antiquity.